Monday, January 8, 2018

Molly's Game

The next film on my winter break movie list was Molly's Game, which tells the true story of the rise and fall of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain).  Most of my friends really liked this movie (and it's getting quite a bit of Oscar buzz) but, to be honest, I wasn't very keen on it.  After a devastating accident ends her amateur skiing career, Molly is at loose ends and decides to move to Los Angeles where she becomes the personal assistant of a wannabe Hollywood player.  Among her other duties, she is tasked with setting up and running his weekly poker game with a well-known actor and other notables who tip her extravagantly.  She decides to learn everything there is to know about poker and, when her boss treats her unfairly, she woos the actor (reportedly based on Tobey Maguire) to a game that she runs.  She makes a fortune until a few incidents lose her the game.  She decides to take what she has learned and start a new game in New York which eventually includes members from the Russian mob.  Her involvement with mob leads to an arrest by the FBI so she hires Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) to represent her.  He becomes exasperated with her because she won't disclose information about the participants in order to clear herself.  This film reminded me a lot of The Big Short because there are some amusing montages and onscreen descriptions of poker but, for me, the stakes (pun intended) weren't high enough to make the story as compelling.  Jessica Chastain is receiving a lot of attention for this role but I found her performance (and endless voice-over narration) to be very monotone and devoid of emotion as she spits out the words as fast as she can (a criticism I also have with Jesse Eisenberg's performance in The Social Network).   I also have a problem with Sorkin's ultimate portrayal of Molly as a victim of the men in her life.  After the first two acts show Molly as an intelligent and resourceful entrepreneur, there is a scene with her estranged father (Kevin Costner) near the end of the film where he tells her that all of her behavior has been a reaction to him.  Ugh!  This scene invalidates the theme of the entire movie!  I didn't really like Molly's Game but I suspect that many people will.

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